Casing for artesian wells



(No Model.) A. J' CLARK.

cA'sNG Pon ARTBSIAN WELLS. No. 411,886. f Patented Oct. 1, 1889.

N, PETERS Fhawtithagnphef. walhiuklon. D, C.

UNITED STATES PATENT ENCE.

ALEXANDER J. CLARK, OF OLEAN, NEW YORK.

CASING FOR ARTESIAN WELLS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 411,886, dated October 1, 1889.

Application filed December 14, 1888. Serial No. 293 ,550. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER J. CLARK, a resident of Olean, in the county of Cattaraugus and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Oasings for Artesian lVells; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to the drilling of oil and other Artesian Wells, and has reference particularly to a lneans'of preventing the water encountered at different depths during the drilling from entering the well, and also to prevent the falling in of the caving rock and the consequent filling of the well therewith.

It is well known that in the drilling of oil or other Artesian wells water is encountered at different depths which flows from the crevices of the rock, and unless some means arel employed for. shutting oft this water it will enter the well and prevent the further drilling of the same until the water has been removed. Again, there are certain formations of rock encountered in drilling, which, when the water comes in contact therewith, will disintegrate and fall within the well. To prevent this tllling in of the Water and rock, it has been customary to line the well with a tubular casing, said casing being inserted at different intervals during the drilling operation, so that when a vein of water is struck, and to prevent its entering the well, aline of this casing is inserted before the further drilling of the well. The same operation is performed when other water-veins or strata of caving rock formation are reached.

In the employment of the above means of casing the well it has been customary to introduce within the well one or more lines of casing of suitable material, said casing eX- tending from below the water-veins or the strata of caving rock to the surface of the ground, and as the ordinary Artesian well is of great depth it generally contains from two to four lines of this casing, which varies in length from five hundred to two thousand feet, so that the expense of drilling these wells is largely increased on account of this shutting oif of the water and inclosing of the caving rock.

The object of my invention is to provide a means of shutting oit the veins ot water encountered and inclosing the caving rock without the necessity of employing these long lines of casing, and thereby greatly reducing the cost of the drilling operation.

It consists, generally stated, in a short casing reaching from below the portion of the well to be shut off-such as from below the water-vein or below the caving rock-a sufiicient distance above the same to properly inclose it, and having at the upper end thereof a packing material, which can be forced against the walls of the well and will prevent the entrance of the water or the caving in of the rock, leaving the well in a condition for drilling.

It also consists in the construction of the packing employed at the upper end of t-h'e casing and the means employed for forcing 1t against the walls of the well.

To enable others skilled in the art to understand and practice my invention, I will describe the same more fully, referring to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a sectional view of an ArtesianA well, showing' the application of my invention at diiferent point-s therein. Figs. 2 and 3 show the application of one form of packing to the Well. Figs. et and 5 show the application ot' another form of packing thereto, and Fig. 6 shows the spreading of the nipple against the wall where a water-tight joint is not required.

Like letters of reference indicatelike parts in each.

In said drawings, the well a is shown as having several different casings therein, and it illustrates the different points at which my invention can be applied, which well has the ordinary casing D, to cut oif the fresh water, the casing c, to cut off the salt-water, and the casing d, to cut off the caving rock. In drilling such a well the well is drilled of diiferent diameters-for example, the upper end of the well being drilled about fourteen and one-half inches in diameter, and the casing Z9, which shuts off the fresh water, generally extending down about one hundred feet, this casing being about twelve inches in diameter. After the insertion of this casing the well is drilled, say, of the diameter of about ten and IOO one-half inches, the drilling being continued until a Vein of salt-water is reached or avein of coal, which usually contains such water, and it is necessary to shut off this Water. To accomplish this I employ a casing embodying my invention, such as shown in the drawings. The well being drilled a proper distance below the water-vein to prevent the escape of the water into the well, a casing of proper length-such as twenty feet in len gth is then prepared forcutting off this watervein, the casing being seated at the base of the hole drilled and extending up above the vein, any suitable number of lengths or seetions of pipe being employed for the purpose. At the upper end of the casing c is screweda collar e, and entering said collar is a nipple f, which extends above thel collar and forms a support for the packing device. This packing device may be of different forms, that shown in Figs. 2 and 3 consisting of an annular block of copper, lead, or other suitable material, which may either be formed as part of the nipple f or separate therefrom, Athis packing material g extending above said nipple, as shown in said iigure, and being of such diameter as to fit neatly as practicable within the bore of the well. This casing is then lowered into the Well, and a suitable swaging device c-such as shown in the drawings-is secured to the set of ordinary drillingtools and lowered into t-he Well until it comes in contact with the nipple f or packing g of the casing inserted, this swaging device being generally a tool which fits neatly within the Well and tapers to a point at its lower end. It is then alternately drawn up and dropped upon the packing g until it swages out the packing against the walls of the Well and causes the packing material to conform to said walls, so forming a tight joint therewith and confining the water entering through the Water-veins so inclosed by the casing and packing.

Where the packing such as shown in Figs. 4 and 5 is employed instead of the soft-metal packing, I employ a packinga'ing of hemp, marlin, rubber, or like material, and I extend the nipple f above the sockets e, the nipple beingA formed of a quality of metal which can be swaged or enlarged by the swaging-tool k. After the casing with this form of packing is inserted Within the well by dropping the swaging-tool 7c, as above deseribed,thenipple f is spread and enlarged in suoli manner that it forces the packing of hemp, marlin, rubber, or like material against the walls of the well and into the inequalities of the rock in such manner as to form a tight joint, and so prevent the escape of the Water.

It is evident that several different forms of packing devices can be employed for producing the desired result-mam ely, the packing or securing of the casing at the upper endithereof and the forming of a tight joint between the upper end of the casing and the walls of the well.

After the casing has been secured in place, as above described, I can then drill through the casing, forming a hole of slightly smaller diameter than theinner one7 until the caving rock above referred to is encountered, as at d. After drilling through this rock I insert a casing in the manner above described, this caving rock being from ten to three hundred feet in depth, and a casing of suficientlength to inclose the same being employed. In some cases, also-such as in shutting off the caving rock-it is not absolutely necessary to form a 'water-tight joint at the upper end of the casing, and in that case the nipple f may be swaged out without any other packing material, as illustrated in Fig. 6, though in this case the metal is forced by the swaging operation into such close contact as to pack the joint as tight as required for allpractical purposes. I am thus enabled to inclose any water-veins encountered in the drilling of thewell or any caving rock by means of short casings, Which are of no greater length than necessary to inclose such parts of the well, and in the drilling of the ordinary well I am enabled to save from ive hundred to three thousand feet of casing, so reducing the cost of drilling andr finishing the Well from five hundred to two thousand dollars.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. a means for packing Artesian Wells, a short casing adapted to extend a short distance above the vein or rock to be shut off and having a packing at the upper end thereof, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. The combination of a short casing for Artesian Wells, a collar and nipple at the upper end thereof, and a packingring supported by said collar and nipple, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

3. The combination of a short casing for Artesian wells, a nipple at the upper end, and a rubber, hemp, or like packing-ring surrounding said nipple and adapted to be forced against the Walls of the wellby the spreading of the nipple, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

et. The combination, with a short casing for Artesian wells, of a nipple at the upper end adapted to be spread or expanded, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

Intestimony whereof I, the said ALEXAN- DER J. CLARK, have hereunto set my hand.

ALEXANDER J'. CLARK. Vituesses:

ERNEST F. KRUsE, WALTER T. BLIss.

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